The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it will develop, for the first time, a classification of traditional medicine, paving the way for the objective evaluation of its benefits. The classification will initially focus on traditional medicine practices from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea that have evolved and spread worldwide.
The International Classification of Traditional Medicine project will assist in creating an evidence base for traditional medicine, producing terminologies and classifications for diagnoses and interventions. It will have an interactive web-based platform to allow users from all countries to document the terms and concepts used in traditional medicine.
Several countries have created national standards for the classification of traditional medicine, but there is no international platform that allows the harmonisation of data for clinical, epidemiological and statistical use, it has been observed. According to Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director-General of Innovation, Information, Evidence and Research at WHO, there is a need for this information to allow clinicians, researchers and policy-makers to comprehensively monitor safety, efficacy, use, spending and trends in healthcare.
WHO Classifications are used to capture key information on diseases, disability and interventions, and other indicators of population health. Main classifications such as the ICD (International Classification of Diseases), in use for more than 100 years worldwide, provide data on life expectancy, causes of death, and inform the plans and decisions of health authorities in many countries. The detailed information that is aggregated for public health purposes, using WHO classifications, often comes from health records, which are increasingly being held in electronic form.
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